Autodesk 3D Print Utility is a free and user-friendly Mac OS X application which enables you to prepare your 3D model (OBJ or STL) for materializing it in a 3D printer of your choosing. It makes it easy to preview the model, make necessary changes to it and even to repair previously unprintable models.

Manipulating objects with Autodesk 3D Print Utility is really simple, as the app’s user interface is elegant and well-designed. A left pane provides access to all the settings and the main area of the GUI allows you to preview and interact with your model using a set of basic tools, such as zoom in, rotate or reposition.

Furthermore, Autodesk 3D Print Utility is capable of analyzing whether your model needs repairing or not and to estimate the print time. Even though it might tell you that no repairs are necessary, you can still make them with the help of several options.

First of all, you can minimize, show in preview or show model dimensions of the support material. Moreover, you can choose the appropriate scale for the model manually or by using a “Scale to fit” option. Further optimization can be made by hollowing and thickening your model with custom parameters.

In addition to this, Autodesk 3D Print Utility enables you to enter the number of copies you would like to create. When model preferences are set, it is time to choose the printer and material. A variety of printers are supported, such as MakerBot Replicators, Fortus, Objet Alaris, Objet Connex, uPrint and more.

In a nutshell, Autodesk 3D Print Utility can be a great asset to anyone interested in 3D printing. It is especially useful when you want to heal the geometry of previously unprintable models and easily preview models in 3D. On top of this, numerous 3D printers and materials are supported.

Autodesk 3D Print Utility was reviewed by Octav Fedor, last updated on January 15th, 2014